9 Recitation
9.1 Introduction
The next spiritual practice Bahá’u’lláh describes in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is recitation. Recitation is a practice which can go hand in hand with the obligatory prayers, as a person must be able to recite them to completely fulfill the obligation. Recitation is also a practice which exists outside the obligatory prayers, and is the primary means to make the Word of God known. You can say recitation is a conduit of divine power. If God’s Word is reflective of the animating power of God’s Breath, recitation is also us animating our souls and the world around us with this animating and creative power of God. Recitation also helps develop emergent virtues derived from the innate virtue loyalty. Before we discuss what to recite, we first clarify the rhythm of the obligation, because morning and evening create a daily structure that shapes loyalty over time.
9.2 Who is Required to Recite and When?
Recitation is a practice, which unlike the obligatory prayers, is not restricted by age or health. All believers are commanded to “recite the verses of God every morning and evening. He who does not recite has not fulfilled the covenant of God and His testament.”1 This is a universal obligation without exceptions. Every person, however, may fulfill this obligation according to their own capacities and it will vary in form and effort.
There is no definitive time designated as morning and evening. Simply it could mean the beginning of your day and the end of the day. Traditionally this would mean from dawn or sunrise until noon for the morning, and when light decreases until bedtime for the evening. For people who must work non traditional schedules, this would be left up to your own circumstances and conscience. For example, if you wake up in the afternoon to work, the afternoon might be your morning and the period after midnight is your evening. What would not change is there are two distinct periods to recite the verses of God, establishing a daily rhythm.
Reflection: What would shift in your inner life if you treated morning and evening recitation as two anchors that hold the day together?
With the rhythm established, we can now ask what is worthy of being recited, because the content of recitation defines what power we are welcoming into the soul.
9.3 What Should Be Recited?
Bahá’u’lláh instructs us to recite the verses revealed by God. In Chapter 5, we defined what the Word of God is, which are the verses. Today, this includes everything by Bahá’u’lláh. He says “Whoever reads a verse from My verses, it is better for him than reading the books of the former and latter generations. This is the declaration of the Merciful, if you are of those who listen. Say: This is true knowledge, if you are of those who recognize.”2
While a person can recite the verses of the Gospel or other former Scriptures from God, we are counseled to use Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation as our primary focus. This does not prohibit reading prior Scriptures, as reading is not exactly recitation. What is excluded from this command? Anything which is not God’s words. For example, this book is not from God so you should not use this book for recitation. Any leader after Bahá’u’lláh who is not a Manifestation of God should not be used for recitation. No scholar deserves to be recited, nor the most beautiful poet. Recitation is reserved for God’s Word and God’s Word only.
Bahá’u’lláh’s writings include the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and many other tablets, letters, and prayers. You can recite in the original Arabic or Persian, but you should do so in a way which you can comprehend. If this means translating to your native language, do so. In today’s age, there are many tools capable of translating such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was used for the translations used within this book.
Reflection: When you choose what to recite, are you selecting what is easiest, what is most beautiful, or what most directly reforms your character?
Once the content is clear, the next question is method, because recitation can either enliven the soul or overburden it.
9.4 How Should One Recite?
Bahá’u’lláh offers a few guidelines in how a believer should recite the verses of God. The first counsel from Bahá’u’lláh is not to overburden yourself in reciting the verses of God. Recitation should come with spirit and joy3 and it is welcome for one who is “enraptured by the love of My Name, the Merciful.”4 Reciting one verse with spirit and joy is more beneficial for the soul than to recite numerous verses to the point of weariness or listlessness.
I feel this guidance is exceptionally inclusive, as it allows a person to determine what is best for them. Say you struggle with literacy and can only read and understand a few simple words. That’s ok! What if you are neurodivergent? Do what you can! Did you just have a long day? God understands. Will I commit a day off to recite for an hour? Yes, if you are able to do so with spirit and joy! Bahá’u’lláh only wants what is best for you, the individual. God is Most Merciful.
Bahá’u’lláh also says we should not expect other souls to be overburdened in this spiritual practice. In general, we should not overburden any soul with anything which makes them heavy and lethargic. If a person is reciting with spirit, joy, and love, if they recite in melodious tones, it is one of the most powerful effects known. He says “they perceive from them that which no dominion of the heavens and the earth can equal, and through them they discover the fragrance of My worlds, which today are known only to those endowed with vision from this exalted station. Say, it draws pure hearts to spiritual worlds that cannot be expressed by words nor pointed to by signs. Blessed are those who listen.”5
Reflection: When you think about reciting with spirit and joy, what helps you keep devotion from turning into pressure or performance?
With method established, we can now ask why recitation exists at all, because purpose determines whether recitation becomes merely vocal or truly transformative.
9.5 Purpose of Recitation
This brings us to the purpose of recitation. Recitation is to be heartfelt. This isn’t solely to touch our own heart, but to potentially touch the hearts of a soul which is listless. Heartfelt recitation of God’s verses is like a beautiful flower alone in a garden, attracting not only our eyes and noses, but also that of butterflies, bees, and other creatures animated by God’s spirit to its fragrance. The verses of God permeate the visible and invisible, inside and outside of us.
This also means recitation can be both a private and public practice. Bahá’u’lláh describes recitation as one of the practices of the Mashriq’ul-Adhkar. Setting the verses of God to music and singing them would seem to be an important community and cultural practice of believers, according to the style and instrumentation they feel is best. One doesn’t have to be a professional singer. Whatever is a most melodious tone for you and heartfelt is what is important. The cool aspect of any spiritual practice is that it is a practice, meant to be practiced. The practice helps develop a skill, such as memorizing, embodying, singing, and feeling the Word of God. No one will ever be perfect but with any practice, time and patience is key.
Reflection: If recitation is meant to carry fragrance into the world, what would it look like for your recitation to be both private nourishment and public service?
With the purpose stated, we return to the Unknown Sister and watch how loyalty becomes visible when recitation guards truth against distortion.
9.6 Illuminations of The Unknown Sister - Emergent Virtues from Loyalty
9.6.1 Fidelity
Through recitation, she feels drawn back to what must remain true, even when everything else feels unstable. Fidelity steadies her against distortion, against reshaping the facts to ease discomfort or soften their weight. The Words she recites remind her that truth has its own sound, and her task is not to improve it or muffle it, but to remain faithful to it without embellishment or avoidance.
9.6.2 Morality
Recitation sharpens her inner sense of rightness without accusation. It does not condemn her uncertainty, but it does not excuse indifference either. The verses quiet emotional noise and help her distinguish moral clarity from emotional relief. Morality here is not about rules, but about refusing to let fear, convenience, or sentiment replace conscience. Morality is the Word allowing the discernment of herself.
9.6.3 Righteousness
As the words pass through her, righteousness becomes less about appearing just and more about inward alignment. She senses that whatever lies ahead must reflect integrity whether witnessed or unseen. Righteousness does not demand immediate action; it demands that future action not betray what she already knows to be upright, even if no one else ever learns the struggle behind it.
9.6.4 Servitude
Recitation shifts her posture from ownership to offering. She feels herself loosen the claim that this situation must resolve in a way that protects her comfort or preserves control. Servitude expresses itself as a willingness to carry responsibility without dominance, to serve truth without mastering it, and to accept that obedience to God may feel heavier before it feels freeing.
9.6.5 Steadfastness
The verses give her endurance rather than answers. Steadfastness forms quietly as she realizes this moment will not be resolved quickly or cleanly. Recitation anchors her so she does not retreat into avoidance or rush toward premature resolution. It prepares her to remain present, faithful, and oriented toward God even as uncertainty stretches forward.
9.6.6 Loyalty (Innate Virtue)
In this situation, loyalty is her decision to let God’s Word remain supreme over her own instincts, narratives, or fears. Recitation keeps her allegiance clear: not to convenience, not to appearances, not even to inherited expectations, but to a truth that liberates by being spoken first within the soul before it is ever carried into the world.
Reflection: Which emergent virtue in this illumination most directly challenges your instinct to edit reality for comfort or safety?
To close the chapter, we now return to your reminder that virtue is a spectrum, and we connect that spectrum to the next practice of remembrance.
9.7 A Gentle Reminder
To close this chapter, I want to offer a reminder that these virtues are not absolute. One is not 100% righteous nor 0% righteous, for examples. As we express our loyalty to God, we must do so in ways which does not betray our loyalty to His creation, which can be nurtured through our steadfast servitude. Yes, there are definitely clear commands of what is right and what is wrong. There are also situations where God seems relatively silent for some reason or another. Morality and righteousness must be practiced to increase. They are not automatic for any person, even if your desire is to seem like a saint. In an orchestra, a clarinet can play a melody and then a trumpet. Even though they play the same notes, the sound and its vibrations will be different. When both instruments are played at the same time with the same melody, the sound and its vibrations are amplified and again sounds different.
I offer this prayer Bahá’u’lláh revealed at the end of the Lawḥ-i-Aḥbáb (Tablet to the Friends):
Glory be to You, my God. You know that I am in prison, calling Your beloved to a share of Your gifts, purely for Your sake. When the idolaters surrounded me from all sides, I remembered You, O Master of names and attributes. I ask You to grant Your servants success in supporting Your cause and elevating Your word, then strengthen them in what manifests the sanctification of Your Essence among Your creatures, and the glorification of Your commands among Your creation. O Lord, enlighten the eyes of their hearts with the light of Your knowledge, and adorn their forms with the embroidery of Your Most Beautiful Names in the realm of creation. Indeed, You are capable of what You will; there is no god but You, the Mighty, the Wise.
9.8 Summary
Recitation establishes a daily rhythm of loyalty because it keeps the Word of God close to the tongue, close to the heart, and close to the moment when a choice must be made. When recitation is practiced with spirit and joy, it can draw fidelity, morality, righteousness, servitude, and steadfastness into clearer form, so that truth is not softened by fear or reshaped by convenience. In Chapter 10 we will turn to remembrance, and see how what we repeat outwardly becomes what we carry inwardly, and how the soul learns to remain turned toward God even when no words are being spoken.